


after a thousand lifetimes

by mo_olelo



Series: threaded heartstrings [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Huang Ren Jun & Lee Donghyuck | Haechan Are Best Friends, Love at First Sight, M/M, Soulmates, String of Fate, college students markhyuck, donghyuck works in a bookstore, mark lee is a little clueless, markhyuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24567769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mo_olelo/pseuds/mo_olelo
Summary: soulmate au where donghyuck works in a bookstore and meets his soulmate who almost doesn't realize that they're soulmates
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Series: threaded heartstrings [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1792528
Comments: 4
Kudos: 166





	after a thousand lifetimes

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday fullsun !!

Donghyuck absentmindedly fingered the threaded band around his left pinky, wound just tight enough he would always be aware of its presence. It was a habit, a familiar movement meant to soothe and placate agitated fingers. For now, he was bored. He decided to stay at school over winter break to make some extra money working his job at an old bookshop just off-campus. Most of the other students did not share his sentiments, the college town left barren, so Donghyuck could sometimes go entire shifts without so much as a single customer jingling the bell above the door.

His roommate Renjun had gotten him this job. Renjun’s grandfather owned it, and really didn’t need another set of hands on top of Renjun’s and his own, but took on Donghyuck anyway with a twinkle in his eyes. Donghyuck was grateful for it, he loved the way the little shop was always just warm enough to keep away the chill in the winter months, the smell of the aged lacquer on the bookshelves and that of the even older texts lining them, the way people always took a deep breath in through their noses when they entered for the first time, eyes widening in quiet awe. 

He had already stocked the shelves of that weekend's shipment, taken inventory, and put up winter sale signs and price tags. And swept, twice. Sure there was nothing more he could do, Donghyuck made camp behind the front desk, eyes lingering on his string. Starkly silver against his tanned skin, and thin, but strong. Donghyuck wiggled his finger, pretending he could see the intangible string mirror the movement, carrying the wave through the shop and out the door.

It appeared on his fourteenth birthday, the first thing he noticed when he woke up that morning, tight and foreign on his finger. Donghyuck had always been a late bloomer, and he worried sometimes his soulmate thread would never materialize at all, yet there it was. He spent the whole day staring at it, holding out his hand in different directions when no one was looking, half expecting to feel a tug on his finger, his heart, when he faced the right way.

Donghyuck didn’t let his curiosity about the object and the person wearing its twin consume him, as people often did. Some traveled the world to seek who they believed to be their other half, their one true love--their soulmate. In school children were taught that the string connects two people who will always be well matched, but they are not necessarily fated, anyone can fall in love, after all. Plenty of people live their entire lives never knowing who existed at the end of their string.

Still others didn’t believe in the fated or predetermined, didn’t want to be controlled by it, and opted to have their threads removed. The thought burned Donghyuck’s throat, it was selfish. There was someone on the other end of that invisible string, he couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have that connection severed. Donghyuck promised himself he would not hold out for his soulmate, he flirted and dated and wrapped himself around other boys’ hearts easily enough, but he always kept one eye on his left pinky finger.

The bell over the door chimed, an icy breeze shoving itself through the crack in the door with Renjun following close behind. The smaller boy sniffed and rubbed his red nose as he made his way to the desk, up against a back corner of the store. Donghyuck smiled at his visitor, it was a little early to close, barely five o’clock, but sales wouldn’t suffer for it.

“Ready to go home? I was thinking we could have pasta, we still have some sauce in the freezer, and we definitely have noodles, I checked yesterday.” Renjun looked over the journal they kept at the desk, checking the notes Donghyuck jotted down during his shift. “You finished stocking the new books? Anything good?”

Donghyuck started gathering his things, putting on his gloves before his coat so the fabric at his wrists didn’t get stuck on his sleeves. “Not really, there were a few that looked older than grandpa if you want to check them out, I left them under the desk for you.”

Renjun lit up and sat on his heels to reach the box of relics, taking off his gloves to handle the books with greater care. His thread wrapped around his right index finger, thicker than Donghyuck's, and shone deep blue. Donghyuck laughed softly out of his nose, he himself wasn’t an especially avid reader, but every interesting book that ever caught his eye came from this store.

Bundled up, Donghyuck slowly started to the door, turning when he was still alone with a glove on the handle. Only Renjun’s fringe could be seen above the desk, too focused on the task below him. Renjun was, unfortunately at times for Hyuck, a hopeless bookworm.“Pasta sounds good, Injun, I’ll warm the sauce if you boil the noodles,” he called, a little too loud.

A minuscule tug on Donghyuck’s pinky made him deaf to Renjun’s exasperated apology. He ripped off his glove to stare at the thread. It looked how it always did, silver and thin but strong. The large windows on either side of the shop door showed him a frosted reprise of a darkening sky and an empty street.

Before he could process what he felt, Renjun joined him at his side, opening the door and ushering him out, turning the lights off behind them. Donghyuck waited as his friend locked the door, and shook the handle to check it. He shook off the earlier shock, thinking he must have imagined the feeling of his band seeking out its partner.

Donghyuck didn’t say anything to Renjun the whole walk home, just let him talk about his ideas for Christmas. He focused on his thread, mind split down the middle between writing off the feeling completely and running down the road to find the nearest human being and check their hands.

❀

The next few days of work passed by uneventfully. Renjun and he took turns opening and closing the shop, sometimes hanging out when it wasn’t their turn because they had nothing better to do. There were no more mysterious tugs on Donghyuck’s finger.

Donghyuck stayed after being relieved from duty the second Monday of break to bother Renjun and appease his own boredom, and maybe watch for a silvery band on a stranger’s finger. The sky was light blue and bright, the sun peaking out to alleviate the determined cold. With the weather’s blessing, more people ventured out into their usually busy street, lined with shops and wares.

The bookshop managed to attract its first decent crowd in weeks, curious students walked slowly through the aisles, tracing ancient spines with delicate fingers; older patrons Donghyuck learned to recognize and set aside novels for returned, smiling at him and Renjun; new faces searched frantically through their shelves, probably looking for a last minute Christmas gift.

Low whispers and the tinkle of the bell chiming as the door opened and closed became the soundtrack of the shop. When the crowd grew, Donghyuck settled up against the wall behind the desk, sitting on the floor to avoid customer interaction. He would help Renjun if he needed it, but he usually didn’t.

The door chimed for the nth time that morning, and Donghyuck’s string shook in tandem. He stared down at it, wide-eyed and unmoving. So he hadn’t imagined it the other day.

Anxiety crashed over Donghyuck like a bucket of ice water, soaking into his skin and reaching his bones. He imagined this moment a million times before, bumping shoulders with a stranger on the street, meeting eyes and immediately just knowing. Someone handsome walking up to him in the campus dining hall, taking his hand in one that bore the same thread as his. Imagining scenarios was one thing, but to have his thread tugging on him, pulling him toward a real actual person with a name and a face and a personality, it had him cold and nervous.

Donghyuck took a deep breath, turned to face the desk and all the world, he pulled himself up with his right hand just enough to peek over and look at the people in the store. Everyone was wearing gloves. He scrunched his eyes shut and planted his forehead against his hand, cursing under his breath.

“Hi, um, do you work here?” A voice asked. Donghyuck looked up to meet the eyes of a pale boy who looked to be around his age. He wore a beanie with black fringe poking out on his forehead, and a black coat over a grey hoodie.

If inanimate objects could talk, Donghyuck’s string would be screaming.

“Y-yeah,” was all Donghyuck could manage, still frozen, crouched on the floor.

Mystery boy was also wearing gloves, Donghyuck finally noticed when he brought one up to rub the back of his neck. “Oh, well, I was wondering if that’s all you guys have in the classics? Or is there more not shelved?”

Donghyuck resisted the urge to gape at him. He stood completely, hiding his left hand behind his back and found himself to be just barely shorter than the other. “If we have a book, it’s on the shelves.” His thread fought him, wanting so badly to be closer. This had to be him, right?

The boy thanked him, and retreated to the classics section on the opposite end of the store, the pull on Donghyuck’s finger dwindled with the distance. Donghyuck watched him, noticing a freckle on his cheek and a habit for pressing on the hair poking out of his hat in front of his ears, cute. He turned to scan the other faces in the store, no one seemed distressed, no one looked like they were looking for anyone else, for their soulmate.

His gaze found the boy again. He seemed puzzled. Donghyuck traced his movements as he looked down at his right hand and took off his glove. The color wasn’t clear from this distance, but the look on his face was confirmation enough for Donghyuck, he had never seen eyes get that big. 

The boy shot his head up, almost flailing around as he searched the faces around him, still holding his hand up. Donghyuck snorted, watched him struggle to piece together what was happening. His anxieties seemed to warm and melt away the longer the poor boy looked confused. Those almost panicked eyes met his own, and Donghyuck knew.

He knew, and something warm blossomed in his stomach and spread to his fingertips. Donghyuck knew, only seeing shining wide eyes that he swore he could see past to centuries of love and fate. Donghyuck knew, and wanted nothing more than to know this boy's name, the way he slept most comfortably at night, his favorite fruit and what it felt like to have his hand slotted in his own.

Locked on him, the boy made his way back over, almost in a trance, and stood in front of Donghyuck once again. He held up his ungloved hand in offering, donning a familiar silvery thread around his pinky, thin but strong.

“Here to ask about more books? I’d be happy to tell you what we have in our nonfiction section, there are some excellent memoirs to choose from.” Donghyuck couldn’t resist the tease.

The other exhaled a nervous laugh, hand still on display. Realizing his own hand was still hidden, Donghyuck brought it forward, giving in to the pull, showing palm up his matching thread.

“I’m Mark,” the boy blurted, eyes fixed on Donghyuck’s hand.

“Hi, Mark, I’m Donghyuck,” he responded, a bright smile spreading across his face. 

❀

Their threads didn’t pulse or pull anymore, but occasionally they buzzed if the pair was apart for too long. They took to linking pinkies when they walked together, when they made promises, when they laid too far apart on the couch or in bed and just wanted to be sure the other was still near.

Donghyuck liked to remind Mark that it took him a solid two minutes to realize he had just met the love of his life, and the first words they exchanged were about the ironically measly classics selection at an ancient book store, and Mark reminded him right back he found his soulmate peeking over the top of a desk like a child on the lookout in a game of hide-and-go-seek.

They fought often, Donghyuck too stubborn and Mark too proud, but always made up, with kisses ghosting over knuckles and string before rising to do the same to eager lips.

Donghyuck would lay Mark's head in his lap, lightly tracing his eyebrows, the curve of his nose, his jaw, and tell him the story of how the threads began, originating from the first humans on earth to experience true love. They never wanted to be apart, even in death, so they tied themselves together with pieces of string or thread, creating a path always leading back to their lover. When those souls passed on, they remained connected, tied together for eternity in lives to come, waiting to be reunited once again with their one true love, their soulmate. Mark would take Donghyuck's hand in his, look up with eyes that burned, and tell him he couldn't wait to meet again in the next life, and every life after.

**Author's Note:**

> hello! as always, thank you so much for reading my works, i appreciate it more than you know.
> 
> Also! There are a lot of things happening in the world, the BLM movement in America is so important, and I encourage you all to sign petitions, donate where you can, and raise awareness with others you know. Have the conversation, educate yourself and others where possible. Say their names.


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